The night of Saturday, February 28th, Disneyland made headlines due to an unexpected fire that set  trees ablaze near the attraction “It’s a Small World.” Thankfully, no one was injured during the mishap, and the fire was quickly extinguished.

Officials are still investigating the cause of the fire, although they suspect it was related to the fireworks show. No one was injured and no damage was done to “It’s A Small World”, which was briefly closed because of the fire.

– Orange County Register, February 28, 2015

 

This unexpected occurrence is reminiscent of a piece in the Escalette Permanent Collection of Art entitled, “Disneyland is Burning.” The piece, painted by Jason Adkins, is currently on display at the University Advancement offices.

piece of artwork
Tommy Freeman, an art critic from Artweek, said of his work that “even areas that read as solid fields of uniform color are actually loaded with aggressively applied paint, resulting in highly textured surfaces with very subtle color modulation.” In all, the Escalette Collection has two other Adkins’ pieces gifted by the artist and are entitled Sinister Minister  and My Beloved Monster. 
You can see these works in Beckman Hall and at the West Palm offices.

So while the actual Disneyland less than ten miles away from the Chapman campus may not still be burning, the Disneyland of Adkins’ imagination burns bright. What are the odds of having such an appropriately titled piece only minutes away from an actual event? One could say…it’s a small world after all!
 

 

All text and images under copyright. Please contact collections@chapman.edu for permission to use. Information subject to change upon further research.